My Journey to Kuantan - Part 5 - Welcome to Kuantan!

If you've been following along throughout this week, you'll know that I've been documenting the story of how I arrived in Kuantan, dating back from the early years of my life, right up until the moment I first set foot in Kuantan.

If you have missed any of the previous parts of this story, you can catch up here:

PART 1 - RAISED IN ENGLAND (1982-2002)

PART 2 - SERVING AS A VOLUNTEER (2002-2004)

PART 3 - MISSING MALAYSIA (2004-2005)

PART 4 - LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT (2005 - 2006)

After our wedding, Fidelia and I flew by Malaysia Airlines from Manchester to Kuala Lumpur, and then on to Kuantan.

Fidelia soon resumed her studies at Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), (formerly named KUKTEM) by driving along this road in the picture above for about 35 minutes to Gambang.

Kuantan was a new and strange town to me at first. I wondered how I'd ever be able to make it and get started with work. Since 2006 until the present day, I've been teaching English to people of all ages, slowly building up my reputation and number of students, from zero until over 65 today.

You can learn more about our company and English teaching at our business blog

I quickly got to know Kuantan, the roads and services here, and gradually fell in love with it.

So for the final part of my journey to Kuantan, I'd like to take you on a little Kuantan blog tour. Would you mind coming along?

In this tour I'm going to show you (or remind you who follow my blog closely) some of my favourite places in Kuantan. 

It took me 24 years to reach Kuantan, from the day I was born in Leicester, England, passing through a series of important events which swung my path eastwards and set my destination to Kuantan.

I'll give you a link at the end of this post. When you click it your tour will begin. You will find similar links at the end of each post on the tour, which will take you around Kuantan and finally back to this post.

Thanks for taking the time to do this and I really hope you enjoy the Kuantan blog tour!!!

KUANTAN BLOG TOUR: First up is Lao Zi dragon temple

Fidelia's Friday - Heartiest Congratulations to my sister!

Today my post is especially dedicated to my dearest sister, Florianna. I mentioned her upcoming convocation in a previous post. 

Florianna graduated with a Masters of Science in Safety, Health and Environment from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in Skudai, Johor last Saturday, 24th September 2011. 

My mother was able to attend her convocation that Saturday but my father came 2 days later to take some pictures with her.

We are all proud of her and wish her "all the best" for her future. Keep up the good work, sister!

Here are a couple of photos of my sister.

With my beautiful lovely mother...

With my handsome smart father...

We are now waiting for her PhD convocation in 3 years time. Hopefully we will be there. Fingers crossed!

Have you been so proud of any of your siblings' achievements? 

Fidelia's Friday - Life in Kuantan

Life in Kuantan wasn't so exciting for me at first. It was back in June 2004. I spent most of my time in my university campus and went to town once in a while. I felt it was a small and boring place with only one big shopping mall! It is so different from my home town Kuching. 

I only started to enjoy staying in Kuantan when Duncan and I moved to our apartment in Bukit Sekilau. I lived off campus and drove to university every weekday for my classes and sometimes on Saturdays. It was a 45-minute drive for me. I have my friend, Thinesh to thank because he helped me to find a place to live. 

Our apartment is situated in a very strategic place. We are near a private hospital, a government clinic, a pharmacy, a supermarket, a night market, a petrol station (or a gas station) and right now the most happening shopping mall in Kuantan called East Coast Mall! Also we are near the only 5 star hotel in Kuantan, the Zenith Hotel! One more thing that would make this place complete is a bus stop! I barely see a public bus around Bukit Sekilau. 

The food in Kuantan is also so different from my home town but it is nice and delicious. I miss my kolo mee (a famous noodle in Sarawak) and my dad's bamboo chicken once in a while and I miss my sago worms now and again! The Bak Kut Teh in Kuching is more delicious than Kuantan. So, in terms of food I prefer Kuching food! 

We make more friends as time passes by. Most of them came from being Duncan's students' parents. We love our friends here in Kuantan. They will help us whenever they can if we ask them. So, that's good! During festive season, they will kindly invite us to their houses and we really appreciate that. We love food! Free food! Who doesn't?!

Right now, I enjoy my life in Kuantan. I don't enjoy all the firecrackers being set up at night during festive season but I enjoy the fireworks they put on show during Chinese New Year just outside our apartment on the field! Beautiful! Although my Lauren is scared of the loud noise, she also enjoys the beauty of it!

So, are you enjoying your life in a place where you are currently living now? Because I am definitely loving my life here in Kuantan!

Fidelia's Friday - Route to Kuantan

I am a small woman born in a city called Kuching, the capital city of Sarawak. Sarawak is situated on Borneo and it is a multiracial state. So, I am so used to being around a lot of races. I come from an Iban family, which is the biggest race in Sarawak. To learn more of the Iban people click here.

I grew up with four of my other siblings. We are all girls. I am the second one and the one who always gave my dad a big headache when I was a teenager. I was a tomboy for a good couple of years during my teenage years. I played football with my neighbours (not that I was good at it) and most of my friends were boys. I never missed watching live football when my state team called the "Bujang Senang" (otherwise known as Sarawak) played at the stadium. Back then they were good with a few  foreigners playing but now they are quite rubbish. Sorry to say! I am more interested in Manchester United now after I got married. My husband got me into English football and taught me everything he knows about his favourite team. To my surprise, I was a fast learner! So, I have been supporting Manchester United for more than 5 years now!

Anyway, after I finished high school at the age of 17, I continued my studies to pre-university. There I was learning foundation in Science. I spent a year on an island called Labuan. This beautiful but small island is not far from a state called Sabah, which is also on Borneo island. I loved my time there! The only memory that I don't want to conjure up is the frequent shortage of water! I had to get up at 5am to fill up a bucket of water from another hostel. We had to walk down our stairs and up the stairs of another hostel. One good exercise after we filled up our buckets! 

After I finished my pre-university, we were given 8 choices of universities we wanted to apply for. So, one of my choices was University Malaysia Pahang which is here in Kuantan. I got that offer and I studied here for 2 years before I met Duncan in Kuching during my semester break. We got married during my 3rd year of university and he came to Kuantan to be here with me! After 6 years of hard work and ups and downs with my studies, I finally graduated. 

After graduation, I don't feel like being a chemical engineer because it is a very demanding job. It has tight schedules as well. I chose that career before I was married because I didn't think I was going to get married at the age of 21. Things changed along the way. I have other commitments now. My highest priority is being with my children and taking care of them. I want them to have the memories of me being with them when they were young. Something they can tell their friends when they are older and say "my mother was always there for me whenever I needed her!"

So, here we have been living in Kuantan for more than 5 years already. I thought we would be moving out after I completed my studies but no, we didn't. Kuantan is our home now. The home to both our children because they were born here.

So, have you ever thought about moving out of your hometown to settle somewhere else? I never thought about it but here I am! Born in Kuching, settled in Kuantan!